Method of conducting an interactive competition

ABSTRACT

An interaction competition provides an entertaining enjoyable environment for a player to compete against a celebrity in a head-to-head trivia game. The questions may be associated with the celebrity rather than random general information or general trivia. The celebrity can participate via stored audio media, stored audio-visual media, or in a live real-time format. A goal of the competition is for a player to gain more points than the celebrity. Another goal of the competition is for the player to answer more questions correctly than the celebrity. At least one or more game episodes can be provided on computer-readable media. A game episode may be implemented with a product featuring a celebrity. The competition can be provided in many different gaming environments. The competition can be provided online via a web-based format; a television game show format; telephone call-in radio talk show format; or a cellular phone game format.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of co-pending U.S. application Ser.No. 10/121,707 filed Apr. 15, 2002 in which the contents of saidapplication is hereby incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

Aspects of the present invention are directed generally to an apparatusand method for conducting a competition. More particularly, aspects ofthe present invention relates to an interactive competition wherein aplayer competes against a celebrity.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Consumers in the modern culture have a general fascination with publicfigures or celebrities. Celebrity can be related to professional andamateur sports, entertainment, business, media, or politics to name afew areas. In this modern culture, celebrity gossip and news programsare promoted to the public in print media, radio media, television mediaand on-line media. In the past years, game shows have been produced fortelevision programs in which a celebrity plays for a charity or someother organization. In many television game shows, the celebrity isasked to answer garden-variety trivia related to general subject matter.While providing an entertainment outlet for a fan to watch the celebrityplay such a game show, the fan has no interaction with the celebrity.Eventually, the fan may lose interest in the show by just merelywatching a static game show with no interaction.

Numerous consumers use the computer networks, for many purposesincluding to purchase products online, locate special events, read newsstories, pay bills and play games. Online gaming is also provided overcomputer networks, such as the World Wide Web. Gaming web sites provideplayers with numerous types of computer games. In the onlineenvironment, entertainment web sites that focus and celebrity news andgossip are popular in terms of use. Some of these web sites are havesubjects about celebrities, shows, or movies. In these sites and others,a devotee of the subject might be invited to take a quiz about thatsubject. While these sites might test the devotee's knowledge, thequizzes do not provide the experience of playing against a celebrityabout the questions. Moreover, the sites with such quizzes, do notprovide interactive gaming against the celebrity either in-person or ina virtual environment.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides an entertaining an interactivecompetition wherein a player competes against a celebrity.

Aspects of the invention provide a method and a system of conducting acompetition in which a player can compete against a celebrity in ahead-to-head trivia game. In one aspect, the subject matter of quizquestions is associated with the celebrity rather than unrelated sourcesor general trivia. In another aspect, a player competes against acelebrity in a number of question formats including a multiple-choicequiz question environment. In another aspects, the celebrity mayparticipate against the player via prerecorded media to form anasymmetrical competition. In one aspect, the celebrity may participateagainst the player in a real-time format. In yet another aspect, thecompetition provides an entertaining enjoyable environment for a playerto compete against a celebrity. In another aspect, an aim of thecompetition includes the player to outscore or outperform an opponent,such as the celebrity, by obtaining more points at the end of thecompetition. Another aim of the competition is for the player to answermore questions correctly than a celebrity thereby to win a prize. Inthese aspects, a player can have a fun experience of playing against acelebrity in an interactive gaming environment.

In other aspects of the invention, the competition can be provided inmany different environments, for example, including but not limited to acomputing environment including an online environment, a web-basedenvironment, or general computing environment; a television environmentin a game show format; a radio environment in a radio talk show format;or a wireless communications environment in a cellular phone gameformat.

In other aspects of the invention a computer readable medium includes agame host component that presents prerecorded media data which has quizquestions with trivia information associated with a celebrity. Acelebrity component provides preselected answers to the quiz questions.A user interface receives a player an answer to the quiz questionsanswered by the celebrity component. The scores of a player and thecelebrity component are tracked and updated based on the answers to thequiz questions.

The above and other aspects, features and advantages of the presentinvention will be readily apparent and fully understood from thefollowing detailed description of preferred embodiments, taken inconnection with the appended drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The foregoing summary of the invention, as well as the followingdetailed description of preferred embodiments, is better understood whenread in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, which are includedby way of example, and not by way of limitation with regard to theclaimed invention.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a general-purpose digital computingenvironment that can be used to implement various aspects of theinvention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a system that can be used to implementvarious aspects of the invention.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram of an interactive competition in accordancewith the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic representation of an opening presentationenvironment.

FIG. 5 is a schematic representation of registration displayenvironment.

FIG. 6 is a schematic representation of a celebrity display environment.

FIG. 7 is a schematic representation of a first competition displayenvironment.

FIG. 8 is a schematic representation of a second competition displayenvironment.

FIG. 9 is a schematic representation of a rating display environment.

FIG. 10 is a schematic representation of a general-purpose wirelesscommunications environment that can used to implement various aspects ofthe invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following description is divided into sub-sections to assist thereader. The sub-sections include: Terms; Overview; General PurposeComputer; Gaming System; Game Flow; Representative Display Environment;Selecting a Celebrity; Preprocessing for a Game Episode; Cellular PhoneEnvironment; Real-Time Game Show Environment, and a Summarization of theInteractive Competition.

Terms

As used herein, the term “celebrity” is defined as a person that hascome into the community attention by way of notoriety or general fame ofprevious activities. A “celebrity” can be associated with industriesincluding but not limited to professional and amateur sports,entertainment, music, motion picture, business, print and electronicmedia, politics, and the like.

As used herein, the phrase “directly associated” when used in referenceto a celebrity, is defined as a topic area which is related to theachievements, work, life, possessions, or career of the celebrity. Forexample, a “directly associated’ question to a musical celebrity may bea question about one their songs a being best seller, such as “whatmonth did your latest album reach the Billboard 200?” In anotherexample, a ‘directly associated” question to an actor may be, “how manyacting awards have they won?”

As used herein, the phrase “indirectly associated” when used inreference to a celebrity, is defined as a topic area having a relatedlink to another topic that is directly associated with the celebrity.For example, an “indirectly associated” question to a musical celebritymay be a question about other musical artists in the celebrity's musicalcategory. For example, a country singer, such as Garth Brooks, may be“which other singer's album did Garth's latest album beat for the numberone position of the most played album?”

As used herein, the phrase “associated with” when used in reference to acelebrity, includes topics that are “directly associated” or “indirectlyassociated” to the celebrity.

As used herein, a “linking discussion” when used in reference to acelebrity, is defined as a discussion that relates the celebrity to anassociated question. For example, a linking discussion regarding aboutthe latest album title and a release date of Garth Brooks can be for theindirectly associated question “which other singer's album did Garth'slatest album beat for the number one position of the most played album?”

Overview

As an overview in FIGS. 1-10, aspects of the present invention providean entertaining enjoyable environment in which a player competes againsta celebrity in a head-to-head trivia game. In one aspect, the subjectmatter of the quiz questions is associated with the celebrity. Incertain aspects, the celebrity can participate via prerecorded audiomedia, prerecorded audio-visual media, or in a live real-time format. Agoal of the competition is for a player to gain more points than thecelebrity. This can be accomplished by providing a scoring algorithm tokeep a running total between the celebrity and player of points awardedbased on selecting a correct answer. Another goal of the competition isfor the player to answer more questions correctly than the celebrity. Inboth goals, the player can win to prize or a designation of as a “truefan” of the celebrity.

General Purpose Computer

FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic diagram of an exemplary conventionalgeneral-purpose digital computing environment that can be used toimplement various aspects of the present invention. In FIG. 1, acomputer 100 includes a processing unit 110, a system memory 120, and asystem bus 130 that couples various system components including thesystem memory to the processing unit 110. The system bus 130 may be anyof several types of bus structures including a memory bus or memorycontroller, a peripheral bus, and a local bus using any of a variety ofbus architectures. The system memory 120 includes read only memory (ROM)140 and random access memory (RAM) 150.

A basic input/output system 160 (BIOS), containing the basic routinesthat help to transfer information between elements within the computer100, such as during start-up, is stored in the ROM 140. The computer 100also includes a hard disk drive 170 for reading from and writing to ahard disk (not shown), a magnetic disk drive 180 for reading from orwriting to a removable magnetic disk 190, and an optical disk drive 191for reading from or writing to a removable optical disk 192 such as a CDROM or other optical media. The hard disk drive 170, magnetic disk drive180, and optical disk drive 191 are connected to the system bus 130 by ahard disk drive interface 192, a magnetic disk drive interface 193, andan optical disk drive interface 194, respectively. The drives and theirassociated computer-readable media provide nonvolatile storage ofcomputer readable instructions, data structures, program modules andother data for the personal computer 100. It will be appreciated bythose skilled in the art that other types of computer readable mediathat can store data that is accessible by a computer, such as magneticcassettes, flash memory cards, digital video disks, Bernoullicartridges, random access memories (RAMs), read only memories (ROMs),and the like, may also be used in the example operating environment.

A number of program modules can be stored on the hard disk drive 170,magnetic disk 190, optical disk 192, ROM 140 or RAM 150, including anoperating system 195, one or more application programs 196, otherprogram modules 197, and program data 198. A user can enter commands andinformation into the computer 100 through input devices such as akeyboard 101 and pointing device 102, such as a mouse or stylus. Otherinput devices (not shown) may include a microphone, joystick, trackball,game pad, satellite dish, scanner or the like. These and other inputdevices are often connected to the processing unit 110 through a serialport interface 106 that is coupled to the system bus, but may beconnected by other interfaces, such as a parallel port, game port or auniversal serial bus (USB). Further still, these devices may be coupleddirectly to the system bus 130 via an appropriate interface (not shown).A monitor 107 or other type of display device is also connected to thesystem bus 130 via an interface, such as a video adapter 108. Inaddition to the monitor, personal computers typically include otherperipheral output devices (not shown), such as speakers and printers.

The computer 100 can operate in a networked environment using logicalconnections to one or more remote computers, such as a remote computer109. The remote computer 109 can be a server, a router, a network PC, apeer device or other common network node, and typically includes many orall of the elements described above relative to the computer 100,although only a memory storage device 111 has been illustrated inFIG. 1. The logical connections depicted in FIG. 1 include a local areanetwork (LAN) 112 and a wide area network (WAN) 113. Such networkingenvironments are commonplace in offices, enterprise-wide computernetworks, intranets and the Internet.

When used in a LAN networking environment, the computer 100 is connectedto the local network 112 through a network interface or adapter 114.When used in a WAN networking environment, the personal computer 100typically includes a modem 115 or other means for establishing acommunications over the wide area network 113, such as the Internet. Themodem 115, which may be internal or external, is connected to the systembus 130 via the serial port interface 106. In a networked environment,program modules depicted relative to the personal computer 100, orportions thereof, may be stored in the remote memory storage device.

It will be appreciated that the network connections shown are exemplaryand other techniques for establishing a communications link between thecomputers can be used. The existence of any of various well-knownprotocols such as TCP/IP, Ethernet, FTP, HTTP and the like is presumed,and the system can be operated in a client-server configuration topermit a user to retrieve web pages from a web-based server. Any ofvarious conventional web browsers can be used to display and manipulatedata on web pages.

Although the FIG. 1 environment shows an exemplary conventionalgeneral-purpose digital environment, it will be understood that othercomputing environments may also be used. For example, one or moreembodiments of the present invention may use an environment having fewerthan all of the various aspects shown in FIG. 1 and described above, andthese aspects may appear in various combinations and subcombinationsthat will be apparent to one of ordinary skill.

Gaming System

FIG. 2 schematically illustrates one arrangement of a gaming system 10for providing a competition that can be implemented in accordance withvarious aspects of the present invention. In one aspect, the competitionmay be conducted in an online environment, such as a web-based game. InFIG. 2, a challenger 15 has a user computer 20 with Internet access thatis operatively coupled to the web server 30. User computer 20 and webserver 30 implement various aspects of the computer 100 shown in FIG. 1which will be apparent in the detailed description. For example, usercomputer 20 may be in the form of a personal computer, a tablet personalcomputer or a personal digital assistant (PDA). Tablet PCs interpretsmarks made using a stylus in order to manipulate data, enter text, andexecute conventional computer application tasks such as spreadsheets,word processing programs, and the like.

User computer 20 is configured with an application program thatcommunicates with web server 30. This application program can include aconventional browser or browser-like programs. In one arrangement, thecompetition is presented and managed by web server 30 for presentationto the challenger 15 on user computer 20. In an aspect of the invention,challenger 15 with user computer 20 plays an interactive question/answercompetition against a celebrity. In one aspect, the subject matter ofthe questions/answers is associated with the celebrity during thecompetition. Advantageously, a goal of the competition is that achallenger can demonstrate their knowledge about of the celebrity. Thiscan be accomplished by showing that the challenger 15 knows more thanthe celebrity about the particular subjects associated with thecelebrity.

Referring to FIG. 2, web server 30 communicates with a game server 40.Game server 40 may implement various aspects of computer 100 shown inFIG. 1. Game server 40 may include an application program for presentingand conducting the competition. In one arrangement, the applicationprogram may include a FLASHPLAYER® by Macromedia, Inc. Nevertheless,other application programs may be used for the competition, such asJAVA™. In one arrangement, game server 40 may include at least one ormore program modules that provide a plurality of audio files embodyingsound clips of the voice of a celebrity. In an alternative arrangement,game server 40 may also include at least one or more program moduleswhich provide a plurality of multimedia files of the celebrity so that achallenger 15 can see and hear the celebrity on user computer 20. Theaudio files and multimedia files are encoded in computer readable formaton a computer usable storage medium, such as a floppy drive, opticaldisk, magnetic hardware drive, programmable memory, or any other devicethat stores digital data for processing as shown in FIG. 1. Thisfacilitates the data to be transmitted via network streaming or othernetwork protocol to the user computer 20. The audio files and multimediafiles can be embodied in any appropriate digital encoded format forusing in computing environments.

Gaming Flow

FIG. 3 illustrates a process for conducting a competition with aspectsof the present invention. It is to be understood that a game episodeshown in reference to FIG. 3 can be presented in alternative formatsincluding (a) an audio format; (b) a video format; or (c) a combinationof both an audio format and a video format. For example, the audioformat may be used for a call-in radio show, or an interactive voiceresponse system over a telephony connection. The video format may beused for devices that have a visual display without audio or to enable auser to temporarily disconnect audio. These features also enable a deafindividual to experience the competition visually. The combined audioand video provides an enhanced gaming experience for the challenger inan electronic gaming environment.

While a computer-based competition is described, it should beappreciated that the challenger component and the celebrity component ofthe competition can be implemented in a live TV game show format aswell. This arrangement is further described in the section entitled“Real-Time Game Show Environment”. In one arrangement, an celebritycomponent on the competition may be a virtual format created by a gameepisode including prerecorded audio of the voice of the celebrity withor without multimedia images as provided by game server 40 as shown inFIG. 2. This virtual format forms an asymmetrical feature of thecompetition between the celebrity and the challenger. The challengerplays in real-time and the celebrity plays in non-real-time. Thechallenger responds to the same questions previously answered by thecelebrity and the challenger receives real-time feedback about thecelebrity answers and the challenger answers. This facilitates a virtualimmersive environment for the interactive competition.

In a web-based competition, the description is generally based on acompetition in which a challenger may access a web site. Referring toFIG. 3, in step 200, the game episode is launched by challenger 15 withuser computer 20 (as shown in FIG. 2). Accordingly, the game episode ispresented on a web page in which the challenger simply “clicks” on anicon or web-link to launch the desired game episode. Generally, webserver 30 transmits the game episode to the user computer 20. Apresentation environment on the user computer 20 is opened so that thegame episode can be viewed and interacted on the user computer 20. Instep 202, once the game episode is loaded, an opening game segment ispresented both audibly and visually to the challenger 15. In this step,the challenger 15 is introduced to the game episode and provided withgeneral information on the goal of the competition and information aboutthe guest celebrity on topics directly associated with the celebrity.

Optionally, in step 204, a challenger may register in the particulargame episode. In one aspect of the process, the challenger 15 may entera desirable user name within a predetermined time interval. The username is implemented to associate the challenger scores and interactivequestions against the celebrity in the game episode. The time intervalis provided so that the game episode can proceed, if a user name is notprovided such would be the case, for example, if the challenger 15chooses not to provide his or hers name. Accordingly, in step 206, ifthe time interval has expired, then the game episode proceeds to step208. In step 208, a randomly selected user name is assigned to thechallenger. However, if a user name is provided before the expiration ofthe time interval, the game flow proceeds to step 210 with thespecifically entered user name. In one aspect of the process, in step210, an opening introduction is presented to the challenger. Thisfeature facilitates a virtual immersive gaming environment for thechallenger.

In continuing the game flow, in step 212, a celebrity introduction isprovided to the challenger. The celebrity introduction further providesa virtual immersive game environment. In one arrangement of thecelebrity introduction, a game host component interviews the celebrityabout the projects of celebrity in a simulated format of a talk showtype presentation. Alternatively, the celebrity introduction can be usedfor promotion of the celebrity. For example, a movie segment of thecelebrity may be streamed to the user computer 20 automatically or uponselection of the challenger 15. This feature is more fully describedwith reference to FIG. 6. During the introduction, the game hostprovides a lead into the next phrase of the competition—thequestion/answer portion. It should be understood that the game hostcould be a human when the competition is provided a live game showformat.

In one aspect, the game host audibly provides a linking discussion for aquestion associated with the celebrity. The linking discussionfacilitates the introduction of the question to the challenger and thecelebrity so they know the subject area of the question. Accordingly, instep 214, game server 40 provides to the challenger 15, a quiz questionhaving subject matter associated with the celebrity. In one aspect, thequestion may be indirectly associated with the celebrity to provide ameasure of spirited competition so that the challenger has higherprobability of answering the question correctly than the celebrity.According to an aspect, a quiz question can have many differentarrangements or format types for a game episode. In one arrangement, aquiz question may have a multiplicity of answer-choices; for example,four answer-choices may be presented to the challenger 15. At least oneof the answer-choices is correct and at least one of the other answerchoices is incorrect for the quiz question. In an alternativearrangement, several answer-choices may be correct for the question,such as two or three out of four answer choices may be correct. In yetanother arrangement, the answer choices may be in a true-false or ayes/no format. Alternatively, the challenger may enter the answerwithout having answer choices presented to them. In this manner, thesealternative arrangements provide a challenger with a variety of questiontypes to enhance the gaming experience. Nevertheless, the quiz questionand the answer-choices may be presented in audio form in which the gamehost states the quiz question and the answer-choices. Likewise, a visualrepresentation of the quiz question and answer-choices can be displayedto the challenger in the competition environment.

The game flow may to proceed to step 216, whereby the challenger 15 mayprovide an answer to the quiz question using a variety of inputtechniques. In one arrangement, the challenger may click on auser-selectable icon or HTML-link to select a desired answer.Accordingly, game server 40 may receive the challenger's selection viathe web server 30. In other arrangements, the challenger 15 may useinput devices shown in FIG. 1 as such a keyboard 101 and pointing device102. Other input devices (not shown) may include a microphone, joystick,trackball, game pad, digitizing tablet, stylus, and the like.

Continuing in the game flow, in step 218, a preselected answer by thecelebrity is presented to the challenger. The preselected answer can bepresented to the challenger audibly, visually, or in both ways. Duringthe presentation of the preselected answer, simulated background soundscan be generated to enhance the virtual immersive environment of thecompetition. For instances, the background sounds may include simulatedaudience applause, clapping, cheering, booing etc. These types of soundsare typically of live audience events, such as TV talk shows or TV gameshows. The simulated background sounds may be provided at this stage inthe game flow or at any other stage in the game flow. In a furtheraspect, prerecorded data of the celebrity can be played with or withoutsimulated background sounds. In another aspect, the game host mayprovide some jovial commentary during the presentation of thepreselected answer. By way of example, if the challenger answer and thecelebrity answer are the same answer-choice for the quiz question, thegame host may provide a statement, such as “challenger is going with thecelebrity on this one” or “sticking with the celebrity of thisquestion,” etc. These features further provide a virtual immersiveenvironment for the challenger to provide the physiological feeling asif he or she is competing on a game show.

In step 220, the correct answer among the possible answers for the quizquestion is presented to the challenger. In accordance with an aspect ofthe invention, the correct answer-choice can be presented audibly by thegame host or visually, or in both ways. Next the game flow proceeds tostep 222, whereby the challenger's answer and celebrity's preselectedanswer are compared to the correct answer of the question. In thiscomparison step, the game host provides audible commentary to make theenvironment feel more realistic to the challenger.

In step 224, scores are updated for the challenger and the celebritybased on the respective answers to the question. In one arrangement, ascoring algorithm maintains a running total of the scores obtained bythe challenger and the celebrity during a game episode. For instances,scores can be assigned by correctly answering the quiz question suchthat a selection of the correct answer causes the scoring algorithm toupdate the score for the challenger and the celebrity, respectively. Inone case, each quiz question may have equal points to be the awarded tothe challenger and the celebrity. For example, the challenger and thecelebrity may each earn one-hundred points for each correctanswer-choice. In one aspect, if the challenger answered a quiz questioncorrectly while the celebrity answered incorrectly, the challenger canearn one-hundred points for that correct answer-choice and an additionalone-hundred point bonus (i.e. two-hundred points). Alternatively, thescore may be a related to a level of difficulty for a quiz question. Inyet another aspect, points can be weighted in accordance with the levelof difficulty of each question.

Optionally, the challenger's answer should be entered within apredetermined time interval, if an answer is not provided, the gameepisode proceeds to the next quiz question. This causes the challengerto not receive an opportunity to increase their score. Nevertheless, itshould be appreciated that the challenger score is generally notdecremented due to the elapsed time to make an answer to the question.

In step 226, a celebrity message may be audibly or visually provided tothe challenger. This message may contain subject matter based on theoutcome of the selected answers. In one aspect, the outcome of aquestion has at least four states—(a) the celebrity can win; (b) thechallenger can win; (c) the celebrity and the challenger can both answerincorrectly; and (d) the celebrity and the challenger can both answercorrectly. For instances, if the celebrity “won” the quiz question,meaning the celebrity answered correctly and the challenger answerincorrectly, the celebrity message may include a bantering phraseintended for good humor towards the challenger about getting the quizquestion wrong. Such bantering phrases may include “better luck nexttime,” “watch and learn,” or “you need to be your toes, next time.”Alternatively, if the challenger “won” the quiz question, i.e. thechallenger answered the correctly and the celebrity answeredincorrectly, the celebrity message may includes a congratulatory phrase,such as “good answer,” “you know your trivia,” “you know me better thanI know myself,” etc. In yet another alternative, if the celebrity andthe challenger both answered the incorrectly, the celebrity message mayhave a consoling phrase for the challenger, such as “sorry, about thatanswer,” etc. In another alternative, if the both the celebrity and thechallenger answered correctly, the celebrity message may have a phrase,such as “stick with me,” or “we both got the question right,” etc. Thereare many variations of the types of celebrity messages based onteachings of the present invention. These features further provide a funinteractive gameplay for the challenger.

In step 228, a counter may be incremented once during a question answercycle. In step 230, the counter can be used to indicate anotherquestion-answer cycle for the game episode. Accordingly, the gameepisode may proceed with another quiz question having other possibleanswer-choices. The game flow proceeds to step 231, whereby the order ofsteps 216 and 218 are switched so that challenger 15 and the celebritycan alternate on who answers the next quiz question first. Thisalternating feature facilitates an immersive environment by providing afeeling of a spirited competition. If the celebrity was to answer allthe questions before the challenger, they could always select the sameanswer of the celebrity. Continuing the game flow, steps 214-230 arerepeated for a question-answer cycle.

In one arrangement, a predetermined number of quiz questions, such asthree to seven different quiz questions associated with the celebrity,might be sequentially played during a game episode. It should beunderstood that more than seven questions may be played during a gameepisode. In one aspect of the invention, the quiz questions for the gameepisode can be randomly selected from a larger set of quiz questionsassociated with the celebrity. For example, for each game episode, fourto seven questions may be randomly selected from a set of one-hundredquestions. In this way, each game episode for a particular celebrity mayhave a different configuration of quiz question subject matter and/ordifferent types of quiz question formats. Further, the aspect canimprove the gaming excitement of playing against the celebrity becauseeach game episode is new to the challenger.

After the predetermined numbers questions have been presented, in step232, a winner of the competition is determined based on the runningtotal of the scores. The respective score values between the challengerand celebrity are compared. If the challenger score value is greaterthen the celebrity score value, then the challenger is deemed to havewon the competition. If the challenger score value is lower than thecelebrity score value, then the challenger has not won the competition.The challenger, however, has an added benefit of being educated moreabout the celebrity by completing the competition. Further, thechallenger generally benefits from an enjoyable interaction of thecompetition with the celebrity.

In step 234, a final celebrity message is provided to the challenger. Inthis step, the celebrity message generally closes the competition basedon the final score. The message may have comments about how they enjoyedthe competition, etc. Further, the game host may provide other commentsfor the challenger.

In an alternative arrangement, the competition may proceed into one ormore additional rounds. In at least one of the rounds, the challenger isgiven a predetermined time interval to answer a series of questionsassociated with the celebrity. Then the scores are updated for thechallenger 15 and the celebrity on the basis of the number of questionsanswered correctly. In one aspect, the challenger 15 and the celebrityare sequentially presented with questions in the form of incompletesentences. Two answer-choices are presented, one of which will correctlycomplete the incomplete sentence. The incomplete sentences andanswer-choices have subject matter initially associated with thecelebrity. The middle questions become indirectly associated with thecelebrity. As the questions count down, the answers-choices eventuallyconnect to another topic that is associated with the celebrity by thesequential linking of the question answers. Then score values areassigned for each correct answer-choice, such as one-hundred points areawarded to the challenger and celebrity, respectively. If the challengerfinishes the questions before the time period expires, the challengerwill earn bonus points. For example, for every second remaining on thetime clock, the challenger may earn ten additional points. There is nopenalty for allowing the clock to run out; therefore the challenger willkeep the points he or she earned for selecting the correctanswer-choices.

With reference to FIG. 2, in one aspect of the gaming process, when around of the competition is completed, the challenger 15 may be giventhe option to report their score so as to determine how they rateagainst other players. The challenger is generally prompted to sign intoa rating system 50 with a rating board. The rating system 50 maycommunicate with the game server 40. After the challenger has signed in,a confirmation that the score has been uploaded may be provided to thechallenger 15.

In an alternative aspect, multiple challengers may play multiple gameepisodes at the same time in which the game episodes have the samecelebrity. This aspect provides a multiplayer competition in which agroup of challengers can test their knowledge against each other and thecelebrity the game episode at the same time. A winner may be determinedbased on the number of point earned by outscoring the celebrity and theother challengers. In such a case, the rating system 50 may include aleaderboard that tracks scores during the rounds.

Representative Display Environments

FIGS. 4-9 illustrate various representative multimedia displayenvironments that may be used in a computer-based competition as carriedout with reference to FIG. 3. It is understood that a virtual immersiveenvironment may be created with animations of graphical objects in themultimedia environments described herein. By way of example, FIG. 4illustrates an opening presentation environment 300 of a web-basedcompetition. The presentation environment 300 can have title region 302of the web-based competition, such as a game called OUTSMART™. In oneaspect, a non-game region 304 may be provided in the openingpresentation environment 300. The non-game region 304 may be generallyprovided on the lower portion of the environment and can be used fordesirable purposes. In one arrangement, non-game region 304 facilitatesfor sponsorship of the game episode and a way for businessestablishments to reach users of the competition. Alternatively,non-game region 304 may be used for promoting the celebrity and/orcurrent projects of the celebrity. In one aspect, non-game region 304may be a click-through type that links to a web page.

By way of example, in FIG. 5, a presentation environment 310 may requestthe challenger enter a name into user selectable box 312. For example,such a name may be entered with a desirable input device, such as akeyboard 101. Similarly as the opening presentation environment 300, anon-game region 314 may be generally provided on the lower portion ofthe environment 310.

By way of example, in FIG. 6, a presentation environment 320 forintroducing a celebrity for a game episode may include an image region322 for the celebrity. The image region 322 may include a digital imageof the celebrity or a series of multimedia images may be the streamedand presented into region 322. For instances, the multimedia imagescould be a movie clip or motion picture segment featuring the celebrity.This aspect provides for an enhanced gaming experience for thechallenger. In the example of FIG. 6, an Olympic speed skater and goldmedal winner Dan Jansen is the celebrity. A name region 324 is alsoprovided for displaying the name of the celebrity. Similarly as theopening presentation environment 300, non-game region 326 may also beprovided in the environment 320 as well.

A question/answer environment 330 is schematically shown in FIG. 7.Purely by way of example without limitation of the invention, in FIG. 7,an upper portion of the question/answer environment 330 includes aquestion region 332 and answer region 334 having four possibleanswer-choices 336, 337, 338, 339 below the question region 332. Eachanswer-choice may have a user-selectable portion for the challenger toselect thereon. The user-selectable portion also provides a feature forfacilitating visually distinguishing between the selected answer of thechallenger and that of the celebrity. This feature can be accomplishedin a variety of ways including, using different fonts styles or varyingthe fonts styles; changing the background and foreground color and/orcontrast of the answer-choices; and encircling the answer-choices basedon the selections. In an alternative arrangement, a graphicalrepresentation may be used to indicate each selection. For example, acircle may appear around the number of the answer-choice of thechallenger. Likewise, a star may appear over the answer-choice of thecelebrity. Nevertheless, in the question/answer environment 330, thelower region is divided into a challenger region 340 and a celebrityregion 342 whereby the scores values are displayed and tracked for thechallenger and the celebrity during the competition. In a furtheraspect, a non-game region 344 can be provided in the lower region aswell.

In the example shown in FIG. 7, the celebrity is Dan Jansen, and thequestion region 332 includes a quiz question such as “Where did theOlympic flame begin its journey toward Salt Lake City, the site of thisyear's Winter Olympics?” The answer region 334 includesanswer-choices—“1 Paris, France;” “2 Olympia, Greece;” “3 Athens,Greece;” and “4 Salt Lake City, Utah.” In this case, the examplequestion is indirectly associated with Dan Jansen, because the topic ofthe question concerns a topic having a related link to another topicthat is directly associated with the Dan Jansen. Namely, the topic areaof the example question concerns the Winter Olympics in the Year 2002.The related link of the example question is broadly the “WinterOlympics”. The topic that is directly associated with Dan Jansen is thathe won an Olympic Gold medal in the men's 1000-meter speed skating eventin the Winter Olympics of the Year 1994.

By way of example, in FIG. 8, answer environment 350 has a correctanswer region 352, a challenger region 340 and a celebrity region 342.If desired, a non-game region 344 may be displayed as well. In theexample concerning Dan Jansen, the correct answer region 352 includesthe answer to the quiz question shown in FIG. 7. The answer is “Olympia,Greece.” It should be recognized that for the correct answer, thechallenger 15 can visually distinguish whether they answered thequestion correctly and whether the celebrity did also. In this example,both the challenger and Dan Jansen answered correctly. Accordingly, thecorrect answer region 352 displays a graphical circle for the challengerand a superimposed graphical star for Dan Jansen's answer. Nevertheless,other variations of visually distinguishing the correct answer arepossible using the teachings of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a schematic representation of a rating environment that may beimplemented for the present invention. A rating presentation environment360 may have a listing region 362 of previous players of a game episodeor several game episodes. The players are ranked as the player with thehighest score is ranked first, then lower scores of other player areranked accordingly. The environment 360 may have a best score portion364, and average score portion 366, and region 368 for the numbers timesthe player has been in the competition.

It should be appreciated that aspects of a game episode shown in FIG. 3and multimedia display environments shown in FIGS. 4-9 may beimplemented on a variety of electronic gaming environments. Suchelectronic gaming environments include but are not limited to a personalcomputer 100; an electronic gaming console (not shown); a web-basedsystem, or online system shown in FIG. 2. It will be appreciated bythose skilled in the art that other types of electronic gamingenvironments could be used to implement aspects of the presentinvention.

In further aspects, computer-readable media provide nonvolatile storageof computer readable instructions embodying at least one or more gameepisodes. The episodes may be provided in specific game packages orsubject area classifications, such as professional and amateur sports,entertainment, music, motion picture, business, print and electronicmedia, or politics. In such a case, a gallery or listing of gameepisodes may be provided for each game package. For example, acomputer-readable medium may have several game episodes with celebritiesfrom the music industry or from the motion picture industry.

In further aspects, a game episode may be implemented with a productfeaturing a celebrity. For example, a digital video disk or otheroptical media having a movie featuring a celebrity or celebrities in themovie may have one or more game episodes included therein. In such ascase, a challenger can select a celebrity in the movie and play ahead-to-head trivia game in a simulated environment. Further, thisaspect of providing a game episode with a product featuring thecelebrity could be implemented with CD ROM or other optical media, suchas songs of the celebrity. These aspects provide a challenger withexperiences of the celebrity in different situations and provide thecelebrity other avenues of reaching their fans. It will be appreciatedby those skilled in the art that other types of computer readable mediathat can store data that is accessible by a computer may also be used,such as magnetic cassettes, flash memory cards, read only memories(ROMs), and the like.

Selecting a Celebrity

Various approaches can be used to select a celebrity for thecompetition. An approach to selecting a celebrity may include a processof determining the popularity of a person. In general, a relatively highpopularity can facilitate the selection of a celebrity for a gameepisode. In one approach, web-based search requests can be used as aproxy for determining the popularity of a person. By way of example,search results on any search engine, such as the MSN® web site, canindicate how many users are interested in finding out more about aparticular person. Nevertheless, other approaches that might be used asa proxy for determining the popularity of a person may includes surveysor polling regarding name recognition of a person; the number of fanclubs or sites devoted to a person; the amount of general media coverageof a person; the magnitude of memorabilia available related to a person;the number of downloads of images of a person; or direct voting of whothe public wants to play against in a game episode.

In an alternative approach to selecting a celebrity, the popularity of amedia offering might be used and the persons involved in the mediaoffering could be selected. Such media offering may include but are notlimited to sports leagues and teams, television shows, motion pictures,theatrical events, concerts, books, or songs. To determine thepopularity of the media offering, the magnitude of web search resultsrequesting information about a media offering could be implemented.Alternatively, the relative magnitude of sales of the media offeringcould be used; name recognition of the media offering; or media ratingsof the offering. Thusly, the popularity of the media offering may beused as the basis of the selecting, rather than the direct popularity ofthe person himself or herself. This approach can be advantageous,because some challengers may readily recognize the media offeringassociated with the celebrity, rather than directly recognizing thecelebrity alone. One example, a popular movie may generate a lot ofinterest, but have no individual highly popular person associated withthat movie. In this approach, an actor, director, or producer of themovie can be selected based on the popularity of the movie. In anotherexample, a sports team which has won a major championship may bepopular, but an individual player of the sports team might not bereadily recognized. A professional football team that has won theSuperbowl may have may name recognition, but a specific player not behighly popular.

Preprocessing for a Game Episode

Prior to the competition of a game episode, the voice and/or a videoimage of the celebrity may be recorded answering a number of questionsfor a game episode as shown in FIG. 3. In this process, a series of quizquestions may be presented with multiple answer-choices, but thecelebrity does not know the correct answer-choice. This aspect can beaccomplished by a human game host verbally asking the celebrity quizquestions and corresponding answer-choices during a telephone or anon-camera interview of the celebrity. If desired, other types ofquestions formats can be used in this process. In furtherance of theprocessing, the recorded voice and/or the video image of the celebrityis converted or otherwise edited into program modules for a gameepisode. The celebrity message of step 210 and step 226. As previouslydiscussed, in one aspect, program modules may include audio files and/ormultimedia files that are provided by the game server 40 forpresentation to the challenger 15 (see FIG. 2).

Cellular Phone Environment

FIG. 10 illustrates a schematic diagram of an exemplary conventionalwireless communications environment that can be used to implementvarious aspects of the present invention. In FIG. 10, a cellular phonedevice 400 may include electronic components and application programsincluding a user interface 402, a control circuitry 404, a memory 406, areceiver 408, a transmitter 410, and an antenna 412. User interface 402a portion of the cellular phone device 400 that provides audio andvisual signals to a user. The user interface 402 is operativelyconnected to the control circuitry 404. The user interface 402 mayoptionally include a speaker device 416, a microphone device 418, adisplay device 420, and a keypad 414. The speaker device 416 providesaudible signals to user. The microphone device 418 receives audio inputfrom the user and converts the signals into the appropriate format forthe control circuitry 404 to use the signals. The display device 420provides visual signals to the user in the form of alphanumericcharacters, colors or graphical symbols. The display device 420 may be adevice used in wireless communication devices, such as a liquid crystaldisplay. The control circuitry 404 may include a microprocessor (notshown), and digital signal processor (not shown) for use on wirelessnetworks. Also control circuitry 404 may include microsoftware andnetwork interface software that facilitates cellular phone 400interfacing to a wireless communications network (not shown).

The control circuitry 404 is operatively coupled to receiver 408,transmitter 410, and memory 406. Memory 406 stores data installed orprogrammed by the user, including a game episode of the presentinvention. Memory 406 may be any programmable type in which nonvolatilestorage can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. Possiblealternatives include flash memory, flash ROM, RAM with battery backup.The receiver 408, transmitter 410 and antenna 412 provide the functionof facilitating cellular phone 400 to connect with wirelesscommunications network. The receiver 408 is operatively coupled to theantenna 412 for receiving a wireless communication payload, including agame episode. The transmitter 410 is also operatively coupled to theantenna 412 for sending a wireless communication payload. It should beunderstood that a game episode formatted for cellular phone device 400may be downloaded to memory 404 assuming device 400 has wirelessInternet access or other well-known access methods.

It is to be understood that the some or all of the aspects of the gamingprocess illustrated in FIG. 3 may be implemented on the device shown inFIG. 10. In one arrangement, user input to the answers-choices may beperformed by entering a number on keypad 414. Alternatively, user inputmay be via voice response or by selecting letters on a keypad 414. Theaudio portion of the game episode can be presented via speaker 416. Therepresentative environments shown in FIGS. 4-9 may be implemented forcellular phone device 400. In this manner, players have an alternativeformat for entertainment and business enterprises have another avenue toreach customers for advertising.

Alternatively, a wireline telephone (not shown) or the cellular phonedevice 400 can be configured to interface with an Interactive VoiceResponse System (IVR) to play an audio-driven electronic embodiment of agame episode as described with reference to aspects of FIG. 3.Accordingly, an IVR system may have a device that can recognize and/ordiscriminate between verbal inputs or Dual Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF)inputs. The game episode may have prerecorded messages that have aquestion and a list of answer choices for the caller/challenger to play.The challenger may use a touch-tone keypad or voice inputs to enter thedigit or letter indicative with the desired answer choice or choices. Itshould be understood that other features and aspects as described in thepresent application may be implemented on a wireless communicationsdevice.

Real-Time Game Show Environment

As discussed in the Game Flow section of the present application,various aspects of the invention can be implemented in a real-time gameshow format, such as a television show broadcast. In this aspect, acelebrity, and a challenger compete against each in a real-time on astage, sound stage, or other venue. In one aspect, the game show may berecorded or filmed for transmission to a communications network, such asa satellite network, a broadband network, a cable TV, or the publicInternet including the World Wide Web. In one aspect, a human game showhost may preformed some of the steps of shown in FIG. 3. For example, instep 212, the game show host can interview of the celebrity in a livetalk show format and provide the linking discussion as previouslydescribed with reference to FIG. 3. In step 214, a question can bepresented to the challenger by the game show host or other methodpreviously described. As previously explained, the question isassociated with the celebrity in the competition. In step 216, thechallenger may answer the question verbally or other methods, such aswriting the answer etc. Also, the game show host can provide commentaryduring the answer.

In step 218, the game show host may request an answer from thecelebrity. In this aspect, the answer is generally not preselected bythe celebrity, rather the celebrity attempts to answer to question rightalong with the challenger. This aspect provides an additional spiritedcompetitive game show environment. In step 220, the correct answer maybe presented to both the challenger and the celebrity. In one aspect,the answer may me presented at the same time to provide an enhancedgaming experience. In step 222, the answers can be compared and in step224 the respective scores can be updated, accordingly. As previouslydescribed, step 226 may be implemented in that the celebrity can providea real-time celebrity message or other statements. It should beappreciated that in other aspects, the steps and other features asdisclosed in the specification may be implemented during a real-timegame show as well.

A Summarization of the Interactive Competition

An interaction competition provides an entertaining enjoyableenvironment for a player to compete against a celebrity in ahead-to-head trivia game. In one aspect, the questions are associatedwith the celebrity rather than random general information or generaltrivia. In certain aspects, the competition is asymmetrical in which thecelebrity can participate via prerecorded audio media, prerecordedaudio-visual media and the challenger competes on a real-time basisagainst the celebrity. A goal of the competition is for a player to gainmore points than the celebrity. Another goal of the competition is forthe player to answer more questions correctly than the celebrity. Inboth goals, the player can win a designation of as a “true fan” of thecelebrity. In further aspects, computer-readable media providenonvolatile storage of computer readable instructions embodying at leastone or more game episodes. In further aspects, a game episode may beimplemented with a product featuring a celebrity. An approach toselecting a celebrity may include a process of determining thepopularity of a person. In another aspect, the popularity of a mediaoffering might be used to select a celebrity for a game episode. Inother aspects of the invention, the competition can be provided in manydifferent gaming environments.

Although the invention has been defined using the appended claims, theseclaims are exemplary in that the invention may be intended to includethe elements and steps described herein in any combination or subcombination. Accordingly, there are any number of alternativecombinations for defining the invention, which incorporate one or moreelements from the specification, including the description, claims, anddrawings, in various combinations or sub combinations. It will beapparent to those skilled in the relevant technology, in light of thepresent specification, that alternate combinations of aspects of theinvention, either alone or in combination with one or more elements orsteps defined herein, may be utilized as modifications or alterations ofthe invention or as part of the invention. It may be intended that thewritten description of the invention contained herein covers all suchmodifications and alterations.

1. A method of conducting an interactive electronic game competitionbetween a celebrity participating against a player, comprising the stepsof: presenting a quiz question to a player having at least a correctanswer and at least an incorrect answer; receiving an answer input fromthe player; interactively presenting a stored answer previously selectedby the celebrity to the player; updating at least one of a score for theplayer and a score for the celebrity based on the accuracy of thereceived answer input from the player and the stored answer previouslyselected by the celebrity; and repeating the quiz question presentingstep, the receiving step, the preselected answer presenting step, andthe updating step for each of a multiplicity of quiz questions.
 2. Themethod according to claim 1, wherein the step of presenting a quizquestion, further includes providing audio data to audibly present thequiz question; and wherein the step of interactively presenting a storedanswer by the celebrity, further includes a step of providing storedaudio data of the celebrity for audibly providing the answer to theplayer.
 3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the step ofpresenting a quiz question further includes a step of visuallypresenting the quiz question; and wherein the step of interactivelypresenting an stored answer by the celebrity, further includes a step ofproviding stored video data of the celebrity for displaying the answerto the player.
 4. The method according to claim 1, further including astep of providing data so as to display the answer input from the playerdifferently than the stored answer previously selected by the celebrity.5. The method according to claim 1, further including a steps of:providing a bantering message to the player, responsive to adetermination that the answer input received from the player matches anincorrect answer and the stored answer previously selected by thecelebrity matches the correct answer; providing a congratulatory messageto the player, responsive to a determination that the answer inputreceived from the player matches the correct answer and the storedanswer previously selected by the celebrity matches an incorrect answer;and providing a consoling message to the player, responsive to adetermination that the answer input received from the player matches anincorrect answer and the stored answer previously selected by thecelebrity matches an incorrect answer.
 6. The method according to claim1, wherein the quiz questions are associated with the celebrity.
 7. Themethod according to claim 1, further including a step of providing amultimedia celebrity introduction having audio and video to the player.8. The method according to claim 1, further including a step of randomlyselecting the multiplicity of quiz questions.
 9. The method according toclaim 1, further comprising executing the presenting step, the receivingstep, the providing step, the updating step, and the repeating step fora plurality of players.
 10. A computer-readable medium havingcomputer-executable components, comprising: a game host componentconfigured for presenting prerecorded audio data including a pluralityof trivia questions; a celebrity component configured for storingpreselected celebrity answers and for presenting the stored celebrityanswers to the trivia questions; and a user interface componentconfigured for receiving a player answers to the trivia questions. 11.The computer-readable medium according to claim 10, further including ascoring component configured for tracking a score of a player based onthe player answers and the stored celebrity answers.
 12. Thecomputer-readable medium according to claim 10, wherein the celebritycomponent further includes stored audio data including the storedcelebrity answers to the trivia questions.
 13. The computer-readablemedium according to claim 10, wherein the plurality of trivia questionsare associated with a celebrity participating via the celebritycomponent.
 14. The computer-readable medium according to claim 13,wherein the game host component and the celebrity component areconfigured to provide a visual representation of the trivia questionsand of the stored celebrity answers, respectively.
 15. Thecomputer-readable medium according to claim 10, wherein the celebritycomponent is configured to present at least one stored celebrity messageresponsive to the player answers.
 16. The computer-readable mediumaccording to claim 10, wherein the at least one stored celebrity messageincludes a bantering message.
 17. The computer-readable medium accordingto claim 10, wherein the user interface component is configured toreceive DTMF tones or verbal input representing the player answers tothe trivia questions.
 18. A method of conducting a real-time gamingcompetition between a celebrity and a non-celebrity, comprising thesteps of: presenting a linking discussion for a question; presentingsaid question having a plurality of answer options including at leastone correct answer option and at least one incorrect answer option, thequestion having trivia information being associated with the celebrity;receiving a first answer option from the non-celebrity; receiving asecond answer option from the celebrity; and repeating the presentingsteps, and the receiving steps for at least three sequential questions.19. The method according to claim 18, further including steps ofadjusting a non-celebrity score, if the first answer option receivedfrom the non-celebrity matches the correct answer option; adjusting acelebrity score, if the second answer option received from the celebritymatches the correct answer option; and updating the non-celebrity scoreand the celebrity score for the sequential questions.
 20. The methodaccording to claim 18, further including a step of providing thenon-celebrity score to a rating system that includes other scores ofdifferent non-celebrities.
 21. The method according to claim 18, whereinthe step of receiving a second answer option from the celebrity, furtherincludes providing data to visually display the second answer option ona display device.
 22. The method according to claim 18, wherein thesequential questions includes at least four sequential questions beingindirectly associated with the celebrity.
 23. The method according toclaim 18, wherein the sequential questions are limited to questionsbeing indirectly associated with the celebrity.
 24. The method accordingto claim 18, wherein the step of presenting a question includes a stepof displaying the question and the answer options.
 25. The methodaccording to claim 18, further comprising recording said presentingsteps, said receiving steps, and said repeating step so as to provide acommunications signal for transmission to a communications network. 26.The method according to claim 25, wherein said communications signalincludes an audio component and a video component.
 27. Acomputer-readable medium having computer-executable components for aninteractive competition with a celebrity player and a real-time player,comprising: a question component including a plurality of triviaquestions, and the trivia questions being computer readable data for atleast one of audio presentation and visual presentation on a computerdevice, and said trivia questions having a plurality of answer optionsconfigured for user selection; a celebrity component including aplurality of the stored celebrity player answers to the triviaquestions; and a user interface component being operatively connected tothe question component and celebrity component; the interface componentbeing configured for receiving a player answers to the trivia questionsand presenting the stored celebrity player answers.
 28. Thecomputer-readable medium according to claim 27, in which the triviaquestions are associated with the celebrity player.
 29. Thecomputer-readable medium according to claim 27, further including astored celebrity bantering component having data for presentation to anon-celebrity player.